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This completely blows.
Apparently ABC will start to air the 4TH season in Jan 2005 without interruptions to make room for a new fall show called...get this...DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES.
The network obviously does not care about this show...or its loyal fans. So, after this Sunday, no new shows until 2005...DAMMIT!!!

I like the idea because it means it will run every Sunday till the end with no breaks. Since the shows are very serial in nature, it makes sense.
As I think about TV programming in the future, you might see more of this. It is like the HBO shows that run 13 straight weeks.
Todd

I kinda like this move. Instead of seeing a few episodes in September & October then going to repeats or other shows throughout November & December & parts of January during the holiday hiatus, we'll get all new episodes every week from January to May.
I hear 24 may be going this route as well, which is fine by me since 24 does start until after baseball, waiting another month or two to get 24 weeks of new episodes is fine by me.

Well, now you see why ABC is about the most poorly run network , next to the WB, ever. They have no idea how to nurture the good shows they have and are more than willing to kill them in favor of some new crap show, which this Desperate Housewives, seems to be. They cancelled Sports Night for Christ's sake. Only a completely mismanaged network would cancel a show that garnered an Emmy and nonstop critical praise and had a decent sized viewing audience.

Will it really run "uninterrupted"? They wouldn't show a new episode on nights like Super Bowl Sunday, Oscar night, or during their annual Ten Commandments showing, right? I don't see this being too big a selling-point.
But if the delay gives J.J. Abrams more time to come up with a killer season then I'm all for it. This season, while good, was a little bit of a let-down for me. And if they go back to the old cliffhanger-style endings, then I'll REALLY be happy.
-Kelly

I'm not enthused about this. I don't like all the random 3 week gaps in the current season, but will it really run uninterrupted as a half-season show? Also, 9 months between season finale and the next season is far too long. That's a good way to lose your audience. After nearly a year, it will be hard to get back into the Alias groove, remember what was going on, and quickly rekindle the enthusiasm. Over that much time people can lose interest or even just forget about it.
Hopefully it will work well, but it's not a clear slamdunk for the show.

Or it could pull a Crossing Jordan, which has actually seen its ratings jump after an even longer wait (despite not showing the resolution to last year's cliffhanger yet) - ABC can play up its return as a big event, maybe pair it with Lost on Wednesdays if that does well.

Jay's Movie Blog - A movie-viewing diary.Transplanted Life: Sci-fi soap opera about a man placed in a new body, updated two or three times a week.Trading Post Inn - Another gender-bending soap, with different collaborators writing different points of view.

Hey, remember when Jurassic Park came out, and ABC was the only network that had not one but two shows featuring dinosaurs on their schedule, and instead of riding the wave of dinosaur hysteria to boost both programs to new heights, they cancelled them both over the summer.
That was very clever.

The more I think about it, the more it seems unlikely it will run uninterupted, what with SuperBowl Sunday (doesn't matter which network it is on, no one wants to go up against it), Oscar Sunday and Easter Sunday all coming in that part of the year.

Of course, that's assuming Alias stays on Sundays; ABC may opt not to mess with a good thing if Desperate Housewives does well and put it on whatever other day needs shoring up.

Jay's Movie Blog - A movie-viewing diary.Transplanted Life: Sci-fi soap opera about a man placed in a new body, updated two or three times a week.Trading Post Inn - Another gender-bending soap, with different collaborators writing different points of view.

Doesn't seem to adversely effect the Sopranos which goes much longer between seasons.
Personally, I like this idea. Its much closer to what cable outlets have been doing. If networks were to get in a regular groove with this it would allow them to schedule more original programming year round and would take off some of the pressure for a single show to have to anchor a timeslot for an entire year.
I see this type of programming being the wave of the future, particularly as DVRs continue to gain market share.

I don't really care when they run it as long as they get the season's DVD set out in a reasonable time frame. For me (with no DVR), DVD is perfect for shows like this and 24. No commercials, an occasional special feature, and best of all...no waiting to see how the cliffhangers come out.

I quit watching the first season of 24 and refused to get hooked on Alias the first season because I got totally frustrated by missing episodes. But I was quick to buy the DVDs. I'm in the middle of Season 2 of Alias right now and should be done with it in another week or so. Can't wait for day 3 of 24. I'd like to watch it in "real time," but I'm too old to pull an all nighter .

I think this could be very positive for the show. The fans will continue with the show. It's not like people honestly forget that a show isn't on when it doesn't start in september. The Simpsons always starts in like November. That shows manages to maintain good audiences...

There is no way this runs uninterrupted based on past history, and I don't believe ABC. I hope Eisner and Co get the boot soon.

Why are they trying to kill off their only shows?? This also means almost no repeat shows at all. I don't like the three week waits, but they're the ones sticking a three week wait on the finale instead of showing it with the Practice finale or even the weekend before.

I think it's positive: 1) The show was renewed rather than cancelled, and 2) it's going to run with no repeats from January through June.
Why all the gloom and doom? The big fall season premiere kickoff is increasingly becoming meaningless when you have some networks jumping the gun, other networks having to hold back due to sports (LCS & World Series, and Monday Night Football). At least one network has been ordering more than the usual number of episodes to keep new episodes running through at least part of the summer, and some networks have introduced new shows to kill time in the summer that turned out to be big hits. The networks are planning year-round strategies. They aren't trying to kill the show. It has a place on ABC's schedule.
Come on, it's only a few months delay. Sopranos fans had to wait from May 2001 until September of 2002 -- note the year difference -- and again from December 2002 until March 2004.

I love the move, I did not get into Alias until the first dvd set came out. I'll be finishing the second season pretty soon and in the fall I'll be picking up Season 3 on dvd and have plenty of time to watch it before the 4th season kicks off. (I am not watching it on TV now, because I want to see all the episodes in order and not have things spoiled)